Hey everyone and welcome.
In patch 9.9 the Scuttle was changed from their initial spawn at 2 minutes to 3:15 seconds.
This has completely shaken up the jungle meta.
In this video, you're going to learn everything needed to carry and win in the new jungle.
We'll be breaking down what junglers became weaker and what junglers became stronger.
Giving you recommendations for the best picks for each jungle playstyle.
You'll learn how early vision has changed dramatically and the specific time and locations
you should be placing your wards.
And most excitingly, you'll be armed with the new most powerful routes for each different
jungle archetype - a total of 8 new paths.
It doesn't matter what jungler you play, you'll know their best route by the end of this video.
The information in this video has been painstakingly cross-referenced across hundreds of different
challenger games in each major region.
This has been done to guarantee that what you're about to learn is the most accurate
and up-to-date information.
Alright, let's get started with a meta rundown.
In the previous meta, when the Scuttles spawned at 2 minutes, it gave rise to strong aggressive
level 2 junglers that could fight over them.
These are champions like Xin Zhao, Jarvan, Pantheon, and Kindred.
The reason for this, was that it isn't possible for a jungler to hit level 3 before this 2
minute mark.
This indirectly weakened any jungler that needed level 3 to unlock their full potential.
But now that's no longer the case since the Scuttles spawn at the 3:15 second mark.
This has indirectly nerfed level 2 aggro junglers causing them to decline in win rate while
also seeing a rise in the win rate of level 3 junglers.
For example, Jarvan was considered a top tier pick before the Scuttle changes, with his
win rate averaging at around 53 percent.
However, after the patch hit, we can see it's declining to below 50% - a massive drop.
Yes, this is affected by some of the smaller nerfs he received on that patch, but we can
see a similar downwards trend on the win rates of both Xin Zhao and Pantheon.
Let's compare this to a champion like Elise.
Elise was never considered that strong on the previous patch due to her needing level
3 to compete with the stronger level 2 junglers.
If we look at her win rate history, we can see it was averaging at around 50.5%.
However, after the Scuttle changes, her win rate spikes up averaging an entire percent
higher.
So what does this mean?
Early aggressive level 2 junglers like Jarvan, Xin Zhao, Pantheon, and Kindred have been
indirectly nerfed from the Scuttle change.
While junglers that become stronger at level 3 like Elise, Kha'Zix, and Evelynn have been
indirectly buffed.
This is only one part of the picture though.
With level 2 aggro junglers declining, It's then created an opportunity for farming junglers.
With less ganking and forced confrontations over the Scuttles so early, these farming
orientated junglers can literally clear their entire jungle before a Scuttle spawns.
These are champions like Karthus, Kayn, and Master Yi.
So overall, aggro junglers are declining in power, while level 3 and farming junglers
are increasing.
To help you keep track of meta we've created a list of the strongest jungle champions on
the current patch for each playstyle.
For farming junglers, Karthus and Kayn stand out well beyond the rest, with Master Yi close
behind.
For assassins Kha'Zix and Evelynn are at the top of the pack, but be on the lookout for
Rengar as he's only a tier below them and his ultimate counters their stealth while
his W ability counters their burst - making him a good counter pick.
For tanks, Nunu, Sejuani, Rammus, and Amumu, yes that's right, Amumu, are top tier.
Amumu received buffs on 9.9 that shot up his win rate.
He's also a bit more versatile as he can build AP instead of tank when needed.
For aggressive junglers, Jarvan, Lee Sin, and Elise are your best bet, but none of them
really stand out as being overpowered right now.
And finally, there's Hecarim, who's in his own category, because despite being nerfed
on patch 9.9, he's still overpowered and complete freelo.
Alright, now that you have a handle on the meta, let's move on to how early vision has
drastically changed.
If any of you have been keeping up with our jungle videos, which you should, because they're
awesome, you'll know that we've hammered into your heads how important it is to get wards
in the pixel brushes early on.
This was necessary due to needing vision of the enemy jungler if he goes for an early
Scuttle - this helped predict his path.
This is no longer the case since the Scuttles don't spawn until the 3:15 second mark.
That means it's no longer necessary to ward these pixel brushes.
Instead, you want to get a ward on the enemy's Raptors.
Here's why.
Let's say an enemy starts at their Red buff, which is the most popular buff to start at.
With a ward on their Raptors, you'll see whether they do their Raptors after their Red or if
they skip them to immediately go to their Blue.
On top of this, if the enemy doesn't appear, it means they went to do their Krugs.
This early ward pretty much guarantees that you'll know exactly what route the enemy is
taking if they start their Red.
Even if they start at their Blue, you'll be able to see how fast they rotated to their
Red, and be able to hit Tab when you do see them to check their CS.
Since each camp is worth 4 CS, we'll be able to figure out what camps they've cleared in
their blue side jungle, once again, getting knowledge on their route.
This ward on the Raptor camp is something you'll see in every single Korean challenger
game and I can promise you if you start using it you'll get a massive edge on opponents
who don't.
Alright, now let's move on to what I'm sure many of you have been waiting for: the new
routes for the current meta.
To begin, let's start with farm heavy routes as they're the simplest and easiest to understand.
When starting at your Blue, you want to take Gromp, Wolves, Raptors, Red, and then Krugs
- full clearing your jungle.
This really should be re-named the Karthus route as he's by far the most effective at
it.
For example, if we look at a replay of professional korean jungler Griffin Tarzan, we can see
him take Blue, Gromp, Wolves, Raptors, Red, and then Krugs
After Krugs he still has enough time left to threaten a gank top before the nearby Scuttle
spawns into then killing it - that's insanely efficient.
This route is used on champions that can farm extremely fast, but consume a lot of mana.
These are champions like Karthus and Olaf.
To highlight just how strong this route is on Karthus let's compare its speed to a Hecarim
doing the same route.
Hecarim also has fast clear speed and consumes a lot of mana, but by the time Hecarim has
finished his Gromp, Karthus is already starting his Raptors.
And by the time Hecarim is on his Raptors, Karthus has finished his Red and is moving
to his Krugs.
Karthus really is on a whole other level when it comes to using this route and you can see
why only the fastest clearing junglers that are mana hungry want to use it.
Now for champions that farm fast, but don't have mana issues, it's preferable to start
at your Red Buff.
This is because you can kill your Krugs at the start of your route instead of at the
end.
This causes them to respawn earlier.
This is valuable as the Krug camp gives the most experience of any camp.
This gives you a bigger boost of experience early in your next rotation.
There are two main farming routes high level players are using when starting at Red.
The first is doing Red, Krugs, Raptors, Wolves, Blue, into then going for the Nearby Scuttle.
To learn the benefits of this route let's look at a replay of Korean professional jungler
KZ Cuzz.
By doing Red into Krugs he gets that fast, early respawn of his Krugs.
Think of it like an investment for later.
However, the other benefit is that you get to hit level 3 off of 3 camps instead of the
usual 4, specific after you do Raptors, letting you transition to your Blue side jungle with
a level 3 spike.
The other farming route when starting Red involves getting a leashless opener.
Only a few champions can do this, the most popular being Kayn and Hecarim.
Here's Damwon Gaming's jungler Canyon using the route: You start at your Raptors, do Red,
Krugs, and then Recall.
You purchase a Hunter's Machete, and then take your Wolves, into your Blue.
At this point, you can decide to go immediately to take the nearby Scuttle that's about to
spawn or take the Gromp to be more efficient.
In this case, Canyon noticed Jayce show early when he started his Raptors, indicating that
the enemy Aatrox was getting a leash at his Red.
Since junglers are now pathing towards the opposite direction they started, he knew that
by the time he got to his blue, there was no rush to take the nearby Scuttle as soon
as it spawned since Aatrox would be on the top side of the map - this is why he chose
to do the Gromp to be slightly more efficient.
We'll be touching more on this concept later in the video.
The main benefit of leashless openers is that you don't force one of your side lanes to
arrive late, which often causes them to lose control of the lane early on.
However, as mentioned, only a select few champions can do it, which is why it's not more popular.
Now, these farming routes are starting to look really strong, so what's their weaknesses?
The main weakness is that it forces you to commit to the Scuttle on the opposite side
that you start on.
This means you need to be confident that you'll have lane priority on that side of the map
or that the enemy's route will put them on the opposite side of the Scuttle you're going
for, either way, you need to secure that Scuttle.
If you're not able to get the Scuttle, you risk being Double Scuttled by the enemy since
he can simply take the Scuttle then transition to the other one before you can get to that
side of the map in time.
It also delays your first gank since you're committing to clearing camps first before
you move onto the map.
Overall, the efficiency comes at the expense of flexibility.
This is why it's best used on more farming orientated junglers that have weaker ganks
early on.
It's also important to note that these farming routes are mainly used on junglers that use
Hunter's Talisman as you'll need the AOE damage and healing from its passive to take down
the Raptor camp.
Now we understand the current meta routes for farming junglers, but before we go to
the other extreme and look at the aggressive paths, let's take a look at the routes for
junglers that fall in the middle that are a bit more well-rounded.
Think of champions like Elise or Rek'Sai, both can be strong once they're level 3, but
not exactly the champions you want to power farm into the late game with.
When starting at your Blue you want to do Blue, Gromp, Wolves, and then Red.
This lets you hit level 3 off of 4 camps, while giving you some extra time to work with
before the Scuttles spawn.
With this extra time, you can try ganking a lane to assert lane priority for the upcoming
Scuttle, which is a concept we taught in a recent guide titled "How to Play Around Scuttle
Crabs" - check it out if you want to learn that tactic in more detail.
You can start transitioning to the other Scuttle if you feel it's not possible to contest the
one close by.
Or you can choose to farm an additional camp while waiting for the Scuttles to spawn.
In this korean challenger replay, we see the Elise has finished her Red, she notices that
her bot lane doesn't really have lane priority to help secure the Scuttle.
As such, she hovers around the lane to threaten a gank, which causes the enemy bot lane to
back off, securing her lane priority to go for the Scuttle.
As you can start to see, the main benefit of this route is its versatility.
Now, there are two main variations of this route when starting at Red.
One where you take Raptors and another when you skip them - it all depends on whether
your champion can take Raptors.
For example, in this replay from SKT T1 Clid, he's playing a champion that can do Raptors,
Elise.
When this is the case, the route is Red, Raptors, Blue, and then Gromp.
Again, you're now level 3 with extra time to gank lanes before the Scuttles spawn, take
another camp while you wait for it to spawn, or rotate to the other Scuttle.
If your champion can't do Raptors then the route is Red, Wolves, Blue, then Gromp.
Again, you'll be level 3 with extra time to use before the Scuttles spawn.
The main strengths of this route compared to the farming routes is that it lets you
hit your gank a bit earlier while keeping you more flexible and versatile.
The main weakness is that you don't get that initial clear of your Krugs, so if you don't
make something happen with your early ganks, you'll have lost out on some experience and
gold compared to the farming routes.
Now I'm sure many of you are starting to notice how none of these routes are covering Vertical
Jungling.
For those of you who don't know, Vertical Jungling is when both junglers start Red and
then invade each other's Blue Buffs.
This splits the map in half vertically, where one jungler gets control of the top side,
while the other gets control of the bot side.
With Scuttles no longer spawning at 2:00 minutes it's significantly reduced the frequency of
vertical jungling.
As such, you now typically want to start on the opposite side of the map you want to influence.
So if you decide that top lane is a volatile matchup of Darius into Renekton and want to
gank it early, you have to start on the bot side of the map and then path towards top
side.
This is the opposite of the previous meta, where we often wanted to start on the same
side as the lane we wanted to influence due to the constant likelihood of vertical jungling
to occur combined with the popularity of level 2 aggro junglers.
Next, we have the aggressive routes.
These have been nerfed due to the Scuttle spawn being pushed to the 3:15 second mark.
That being said, they're still viable, just less powerful.
These routes are what you want to use on the strong early game junglers like Xin Zhao,
Kindred, and Pantheon.
Now, every single aggressive route in the current meta involves you starting at your
Red as the buff will make your auto-attacks do more damage while also giving them a slow.
There are currently two main variations.
The first is doing Red into a Gank top into then invading the enemy's Blue.
The idea is, that the gank top can not only net you an early kill, but also secures you
lane priority, giving you support on your invade on their Blue.
There are two requirements to execute this route: start a sweeping lens and make sure
the enemy started at their red on the opposite side of the map.
There are currently two main variations.
The first is doing Red into a Gank top into then invading the enemy's Blue.
The idea is, that the gank top can not only net you an early kill, but also secures you
lane priority, giving you support on your invade on their Blue.
There are two requirements to execute this route: start a sweeping lens and make sure
the enemy started at their red on the opposite side of the map.
This is because if the enemy started at their Blue, you won't be able to steal it after
you gank top.
For example, in this replay, we see SANDBOX OnFleek starting Red as Xin Zhao and then
immediately pathing top.
He uses his Sweeping Lens to check if it's warded, which unfortunately it is, into killing
the ward.
The enemy Jayce now has to play back since he doesn't know whether Xin Zhao is waiting
to gank him.
This gives his top lane the priority needed to invade the enemy's Blue.
This was also a really smart path by Xin Zhao since Jayce can be a huge lane bully.
If he had pathed towards the bottom side of the map, Nidalee would have ended up pressuring
top side and Poppy would have gotten crushed.
Now the other variation to this route is used on champions that jump over the Baron pit
at level 2 after taking their Red into stealing the enemy's Blue Buff.
These are champions like Kindred, Jarvan, Graves, Nidalee, and Camille.
The idea is that by jumping over the baron pit you hide yourself from any wards that
would spot you.
You then place a ward that spots the blast cone plant and the choke point to their Blue.
After Blue, you can take their Gromp, in the meantime, you watch your ward to see if you
spot the enemy going for their Blue.
If the enemy goes for their Blue, since you picked a strong level 2 jungler and have the
element of surprise, you can win the 1v1.
Otherwise, if you don't spot them, you move to their Wolf camp next, where often you'll
catch them there.
Alright, we went over a lot in this replay, so let's recap.
We started by giving a rundown of the meta, where you learned that Scuttles spawning later
indirectly nerfed aggressive junglers while buffing level 3 and farming junglers.
We then covered how early warding has changed.
We no longer ward the pixel brushes and instead place a ward on the enemy's Raptor camp to
help track their route.
We then broke down the new most powerful routes for each jungling playstyle.
For farming junglers, when starting Blue, you full clear into your Krugs.
When starting Red, you can do Red into full clearing towards your Blue or if you can start
Raptors you can do a leashless opener where you kill Raptors, Red, Krugs, then Recall,
into your Blue Side jungle.
These routes are strongest on champions that can clear fast and have weak early ganks.
Next, we looked at routes for junglers that fall in the middle and are more well-rounded.
If you start Blue, you do Blue, Gromp, Wolves, and then Red.
When starting Red, you can do Red, Raptors, Blue, Gromp or if your champion can't do Raptors
then Red, Wolves, Blue, Gromp.
The goal of these routes is to hit level 3 off of 4 camps with double buffs, while having
extra time to spare before the Scuttles spawn.
This let's you land a gank before going for the Scuttle, take another camp, or transition
to the opposite Scuttle if needed.
This keeps you versatile and flexible while maintaining a nice balance of aggression and
farming.
Lastly, we covered routes for aggressive junglers.
The first, is doing Red into Ganking the nearby Side lane, into stealing the enemy's Blue.
It's important to start a Sweeping Lens when executing this route since you want to use
it as you move to gank top.
This allows you to apply early pressure to a nearby lane, while stealing the enemy's
blue.
The other route is used on champions that can jump over the baron pit wall at level
2.
You do Red, jump over the wall, and steal the enemy's Blue.
This allows you to avoid being spotted in any wards.
You then place a ward down to see if the enemy comes to take their Blue.
This sets a trap as you farm their jungle, since you have the element of surprise, double
buffs, and are playing a strong level 2 jungler.
Alright, what do you think of the Scuttle changes?
Has it made the game better or worse?
Let us know in the comment section below as well as any questions you might have.
Make sure to like, subscribe, and hit the bell icon to increase your elo and keep up-to-date
with the meta.
In the meantime, check out some of our other guides, which I know you'll love.
As always, good luck, and have fun, on summoner's rift.